What to expect at BluuGnome

The BG-Gear Store Now Open
The SQWUREL rappel / belay device, Smooth Operator
retrievable anchor system and the Las Vegas Slots Canyoneering
Book are available as well as downloadable GPX files for
many of the canyons listed here.

In addition to
the waypoints, the downloadable GPX files also offer routes and tracks
for the canyon. Over time more GPX files will be
added.
If you want to avoid manually adding waypoints into your GPS
or mapping software, want the additional routes and tracks
or simply want to support the efforts put into BluuGnome,
head over to the
BG-Gear
Store and grab the files that interest you.

The beta here is written with the
intent of being "used" by those that wish to go enjoy the canyon as well.
The route descriptions are not just "show and tell" with little to no
information. Route descriptions for the canyoneering routes include GPS Coordinates, Maps, Written Descriptions and
other bits of information. There are also links to pictures for each
canyon which can help get a feel for what the canyon will be like.

The canyoneering route descriptions attempt to appeal to two kinds of people, those that
like a lot of detail and those that do not. The quick facts at the top
of each description will give basic information for those only looking for
that. Reading further will provide the details others like to have
access to.

In another way the route descriptions attempt to relate to two kinds of
people, those with GPS and those without. GPS is
very helpful and sometimes almost needed. But the route descriptions are
also intended to be used by those without GPS by providing step by step
directions to, through and from the canyon.

I live in Las Vegas and life has me tied to this specific geographic location for now. This limits
the area of canyoneering routes covered. Canyons in California, Nevada, Arizona and Utah are
primarily what are covered here. Some of the main areas
covered are Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area, Zion National Park,
Death Valley National Park, Capitol Reef National Park and North Wash (including
Cedar Mesa, Poison Springs, Robbers Roost). There will also be canyons in
other areas like Coconino National Forest -
Arizona, Escalante National Monument - Utah, Mount Charleston - Nevada and Grand Canyon National Park -
Arizona and Utah.

Looking for pictures in the canyons?

On the route description page for each canyon is a link to pictures from one or more
trips in that canyon. If you want to look at pictures from a
particular canyon, find the
route description page for that canyon then click on the picture
link(s) on that page.

Once you have found the pictures for a canyon and are viewing the
gallery, you can also navigate within the gallery to check out pictures
from any other canyon. This is good for those who are just
interested in checking out pictures. When viewing the picture
gallery, use the up arrow icon in the control pane to move up a level.

11-27-16Updated
Pandora's Box
beta. After going through recently I cleaned up the information a
little for clarification. Also added a picture of the start of the
climb up to the mesa for the upstream exit.

09-14-16Added the
Sleepytime Trio to the Ticaboo Mesa area.Sleepytime Trio is a
collection of 3 short slots and a fourth one to go just look at.The trio
is Power Nap Canyon, Siesta Canyon and Rude Awakening. The fourth one
to look at is Pipe Dream Canyon.

08-25-16Added
Mumbai Canyon
to the Escalante area.Thanks to Ram and Aaron for sharing their find.

08-20-16Added some GPX files to
the BG-Gear web store.
Added:A Dirty Devil category and in it added all of the Angel theme
named canyons.Updated the GPX files for Icebox canyon in Zion and for
Cassidy Arch Canyon in Capitol Reef.Added South Guardian Angel Canyon to
the Zion area.Added a Ticaboo Mesa category with 24 GPX files.Added
a Coconino National Forest area and added Illusions and Insomnia.

08-20-16Updated the
Cassidy Arch
Canyon beta for Capitol Reef National Park. Anchors have been
added so rap 1 is no longer done from a tree and uses bolted hangers
instead. This was a request from the park. Also updated beta to
reflect a new anchor set for the second stage of rap 3 making the total rap
count one higher.

08-19-16Updated
Icebox Canyon in
Zion. Still just cover the North Pass Entry but now with the needed
details. When I first descended this canyon I was fairly new to the
sport and had not dialed in my beta note taking process. A revisit
this month allowed me to clean this up.

08-10-16Added
South Guardian
Canyon, aka SGA Canyon. After one trip to scout an alternate exit,
go to SGA peak and then abort the canyon due to lack of time, then a second
trip to descend the canyon bypassing the deep dark crack and finally a third
trip to get down the full canyon, we racked up 55.5 hours!

07-08-16Added
Insomnia and
Illusions routes. Both routes describe the Sneak Route for each
where a sneak exit is used to significantly shorten the route time and
distance while still descending the entire technical sections. Both
routes can be done as loop routes requiring no shuttle.

06-03-2016Added
Dos Bolsas Cojones Canyon to the Ticaboo Mesa area in Utah. I have
been wanting to go explore this short slot for a couple years now and
finally talked friends into helping me out with it. This short slot
did not dissapoint.

06-01-2016Over the past few weeks
I have made a few minor updates to Upper Stair in North Wash, Pothoez and
Fiddlestix in Ticaboo.

Added a picture to the beta for Heaps
showing the climb out spot to exit out of the water course to go up to the
bird perch.

Cleaned up some misleading information on the East Fork
of Bluejohn Canyon that was called to my attention.

04-14-2016
Added Eastern SunAdded
Eastern Sun to the Zion Area. Thanks to Kip Marshall for showing
us this route. First descent story coming to Canyon Collective
soon..........

04-12-2016
Site MaintenanceMy picture software for the web site needed to be updated. As
a result I was getting some hiccups with it. I am in the process of
upgrading things a little. At present most of the picture albums are
not viewable. I am in the process of re-uploading them and trying to
get things back to normal. This should not take more than a couple
days to get it back to something I am ok with.

04-10-2016
5 New Canyons AddedAdded 5 more of the Angel Canyons to Dirty Devil River area of
Utah.
Angel Slot (was already there but has been updated a little), Angels Advocate, Angel Cove North Fork, Angel Cove South Fork,
Lost Angel and Hidden Angel.

04-08-2016Updated Angel Slot information in the Dirty Devil Area.

10-28-15I had a request for info on
Redemption
Canyon and I finally got around to working my way through my info and
just added it to the site.

05-31-15Added a short page about the SQWUREL to the How To section.
The How To page for the SQWUREL has links to a few videos about how to use
the SQWUREL. 3 Videos uploaded for now. I will add a few more
when time permits.

05-21-15The SQWUREL rappel device for canyoneering is now available for
sale on the BG-Gear
store.

12-03-14Updated Pine Creek Canyon in Zion. A drop that has been a
downclimb for each time I had visited is now a 30 foot rappel. As it
turns out there has been a glue in anchor for this drop but I have never
noticed it. Now that sand has washed out the 6 foot downclimb is now
about 30 feet and uses the glue in anchor.

11-16-14Added the Right (east) Fork of Good Day Jim. The Good Day Jim
Route now includes info for both the Left (west) and the Right (east) Forks.

11-15-14Added Trough Canyon to the Ticaboo Mesa area.

11-15-14Added Pinworm Canyon to the route description for Pottymouth out at
Ticaboo Mesa.
Pinworm Canyon is a
short non-technical side slot near the
end of the Pottymouth
drainage extending about
650 feet.

Also updated the Sinusitis route at Ticaboo Mesa. Found a few mistakes
in the description while visiting last week.

11-14-14Added Shuffleboard Canyon to the Smith Fork area of Ticaboo Mesa.

11-01-14Updated the Double Deuce Route in Ticaboo Mesa. Added the
Right Fork of Double Deuce to it and also changed the exit route information
to show a much easier exit. No difficult exit Up Seven Mile Creek.

10-31-14Updated Smokestack Canyon route. Some friends told me they
had trouble locating the canyon with my description. When I got time I
went back and did the route again to check. Sure enough it was a
little vague in a key spot. So that has been updated. While
doing the update scout hike also scouted out an easier route for the last
part of the approach which is now updated as well. To help make things
better I added some navigation images to the route description as well.

09-22-14Added 3 forks of Bluejohn Canyon to the Robbers Roost area.
East Fork of Bluejohn Canyon, Squeeze Fork of Bluejohn Canyon and Main Fork
of Bluejohn Canyon.

09-07-14Updated the Pandora's Box beta to word the exit options as Upstream
Exit and Downstream Exit rather than the previous wording of Short and Long
exit. The Short Exit has difficulties the long exit does not and the
word short may entice canyoneers to choose the short exit not realizing it
can be a challenge. Also fixed a few typos and cleared some stuff up
along the way. Thanks to Malia for the suggested changes.

07-21-14I finally got the real store up and running. Very little is
listed and the store will likely remain small for ever. For those of
you looking to pick up a Smooth Operator, Rick Ianniello's book - Las Vegas
Slots or grab some GPX files to accompany the route descriptions listed
here, jump over to BG-Gear.com

07-21-14Updated Hidden Canyon in Zion National Park. It was brought
to my attention that the trail system has changed and been re-routed since I
had written the beta back in 2008. The new updated route description
reflects the changes and highlights the differences between the old and new
trail system.

03-04-14
Tripoli Canyon added to Ticaboo Mesa area.

01-22-14
A New Online Canyoneering Store has opened.Todd and Desiree have opened a canyoneering specific web store.
At the moment all they have are rope bags (very cool rope bags). But
stay tuned there are more products on the way over the months to come.
If you want to get yourself a rope bag or just check out their store it is
atwww.canyonwerks.com

01-22-14
Death Valley CanyonAdded Miracle Max Canyon to the Princess Bride area on the
Cottonwood Range in Death Valley National Park.

01-10-14
Death Valley CanyonsAdded 3 more canyons to the Princess Bride area on the Cottonwood
Range in Death Valley National Park.
Humperdinck Canyon, Buttercup Canyon and Inconceivable Canyon.

12-08-13
Vinegaroon CanyonAdded Vinegaroon Canyon. After checking out Scorpion Canyon,
we were curious what was in the canyon just north of it. No signs of
any visitation so we assume its a first. Vinegaroon turns out to be a
very similar canyon with some additional 360 degree scenic views on an
approach ridge.

09-04-13
More new Zion stuff.Added Pipe Springs Canyon.
Also made a revision to the MIA Exit now reflected on the Boundary and Pipe
Springs Canyon descriptions. Shaved off a little distance on the route
through the web of roads by showing the most direct path through the roads.
Thanks to Mike Cressman for pointing out the shorter route.

09-02-13
2.5 New Canyons AddedBulloch - Salamander Fork (aka Right Fork of Bulloch Canyon) and
Walker Gulch have been added to the Zion area canyons.

Also Checkerboard Canyon has been updated with a major approach route change
shaving off 1.7 miles of travel and some elevation gain / loss. The route
now goes up over Dakota Hill following ridges to short cut part of the original
route Thanks to Kip for showing us the short cut!.

08-05-13
6 New Canyons AddedI Finally got around to working on a small bit of my back logged
data.
Recent additions are:
Sinusitis, Pottymouth and Warm Springs Canyon in Ticaboo Mesa. Cassidy
Arch Canyon in Capitol Reef. Deadeye Dick and Mighty Mouse in Zion
National Park.

06-15-13
Photo Gallery UpdateThe photo galleries for the canyons were down for a day while being
upgraded. If you find a picture album link not working feel free to
contact me to let me know,

Irish Jihad 2013
Successful CloseThe Irish Jihad has now closed. See the
Irish
Jihad Community Page to see how much we raised, stats, drawing winners
etc.

Smooth Operator
How ToNew page added
to the How To section showing how to use the
Smooth
Operator.

The Smooth Operator is the BluuGnome version of the Fiddlestick with some
added features.

I attempted to cover everything I know about the Smooth Operator / Fiddlestick in an attempt
to keep people safe and well informed. Experienced users
may find some useful information should you take the time to wade through it
all.

Irish Jihad 2013Registration
opens on February 1st for the Irish
Jihad 2013 event!!
A fundraiser for SAR.
Strong, creative and fun loving canyoneers have the opportunity to try to
complete the 7 Irish Canyons in a day while supporting a good cause.

Canyon CollectiveDan Ransom has
started a new place for the community to share beta, share canyon
conditions, view a map of known canyons, interact with the canyoneering
community in forums and more. The
CanyonCollective.com is off to a brand new and exciting start!
sign up for a free account and have fun!

01-11-13
Site Maintenance
I
recently spent some time cleaning a bunch of things up on BluuGnome.

I found some VERY confusing stuff on the pages for the Leprechaun Canyons.
I fixed the issues and re-wrote a portion of the Middle Fork approach as it
seemed WAY too confusing.

07-22-12
Old Bill Canyon Updated
Old Bill Canyon in Red Rock NV had access issues with crossing the
Spring Mountain Ranch State Park Border. The exit route in the route
description has been updated to give a legal exit route skirting around the
park boundary. The legal exit is not as simple or straight forward as
going through the park but it is legal.

06-30-12
Subway Route Updated
Zion National Park Subway Canyoneering Route updated.
The Park Service would like to redirect foot traffic for a short section of
the Subway approach route to reduce impact on a small section of forest.
The Route descriptions for Subway, Das Boot and Russell Gulch have been updated to reflect this change.
The adjustment is minor and is between route points wSubWayRP-01a and
wSubWayRP-01b in the route descriptions.

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